A Review of Glacial Lake Expansion and Associated Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Himalayan Region

Ahmed, Rayees; Wani, Gowhar Farooq; Ahmad, Syed Towseef; Sahana, Mehebub; Singh, Harmeet; Ahmed, Pervez

doi:10.1007/s41748-021-00230-9

Cited by 66 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 85 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…GLOF size and recurrence interval likely show a lagged relationship to climate forcing ( Harrison et al, 2018 ), although this has not been fully explored. GLOFs have been noted from several mountain blocks worldwide, and their potential for geohazard risk has been examined ( Ahmed et al, 2021 ; Veettil & Kamp, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains

Knight¹

2022

PeerJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mountains are highly diverse in areal extent, geological and climatic context, ecosystems and human activity. As such, mountain environments worldwide are particularly sensitive to the effects of anthropogenic climate change (global warming) as a result of their unique heat balance properties and the presence of climatically-sensitive snow, ice, permafrost and ecosystems. Consequently, mountain systems—in particular cryospheric ones—are currently undergoing unprecedented changes in the Anthropocene. This study identifies and discusses four of the major properties of mountains upon which anthropogenic climate change can impact, and indeed is already doing so. These properties are: the changing mountain cryosphere of glaciers and permafrost; mountain hazards and risk; mountain ecosystems and their services; and mountain communities and infrastructure. It is notable that changes in these different mountain properties do not follow a predictable trajectory of evolution in response to anthropogenic climate change. This demonstrates that different elements of mountain systems exhibit different sensitivities to forcing. The interconnections between these different properties highlight that mountains should be considered as integrated biophysical systems, of which human activity is part. Interrelationships between these mountain properties are discussed through a model of mountain socio-biophysical systems, which provides a framework for examining climate impacts and vulnerabilities. Managing the risks associated with ongoing climate change in mountains requires an integrated approach to climate change impacts monitoring and management.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains

Knight¹

2022

PeerJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Altitude is an important controlling factor for the change in surface area of glacial lakes [58,82]. All the identified glacial lakes in the study region were normally distributed between 2700 and 4500 m asl.…”

Section: Altitudinal Differencesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Kashmir Valley has an area of approximately 15,948 square kilometers 3 [56]. Dar et al [57] and Ahmed et al [58] reported that the Pir Panjal range obstructs southwestern monsoons from entering the valley, shaping the climate of the Kashmir region to a more arid-windy type in comparison to the tropical type in other parts of India. Kashmir Valley experiences four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter) [59] with annual average precipitation and temperature, i.e., 710 mm, 13.5 °C, while receiving enormous precipitation during winter months (December-February) due to western disturbances [57,60].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of glacial lakes (1990–2018) in the Kashmir Himalayas, India using Remote Sensing and GIS

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study is perhaps the first attempt to use satellite data (1990–2018) to analyze spatiotemporal changes in glacial lakes over the Kashmir Himalayas supplemented by field studies. Landsat images were used to delineate the spatial extent of glacial lakes at four-time points, i.e., 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2018. The total count of lakes as well as their spatial extent showed a discernible increase. The number increased from 253 in 1990 to 324 in 2018, with a growth rate of 21.4%. The area has increased from 18.84 ± 0.1 km2 in 1990 to 22.13 ± 0.12 km2 in 2018 with a growth rate of 14.7%. The newly formed glacial lakes, including supraglacial lakes, were greater in number than the lakes that disappeared over the study period. All glacial lakes are situated at elevations of 2700 m asl and 4500 m asl. More than 78% of lake expansion in the study region is largely due to the growth of existing glacial lakes. Through area change analysis, our findings reveal that certain lakes show rapid expansion needing immediate monitoring and observation. The analysis of the meteorological variables reveals that minimum and maximum temperatures in the Jhelum basin have shown an increasing trend. Tmax showed an increase of 1.25 °C, whereas Tmin increased to 0.7 °C from 1980 to 2020. On the other hand, precipitation has shown a decreasing trend, which can be attributed to one of the major causes of glacier recession and the expansion of glacial lakes in the Upper Jhelum basin. Consequently, this study could play a significant role in devising a comprehensive risk assessment plan for potential Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and developing a mechanism for continuous monitoring and management of lakes in the study region.

show abstract

“…Because of the mountainous geography, Nepal is highly impacted by climate change-influenced hazards such as erratic and severe weather, landslides, avalanches, and glacial lake outburst floods (Zurick et al 2006, Zimmerman andKeiler 2015). For example, landslides in the Himalayas that are cascading effects from earthquakes are reactivated annually by more severe storms, which are a product of climate change (Dikshit et al 2020, Ahmed et al 2021, Dimri et al 2021. Climate change is also forcing households to adapt their ways of life by growing different crops or shifting from placebased agropastoralism to market labor (Merrey et al 2018).…”

Section: Nepal and The 2015 Earthquakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Spoon¹,

Gerkey²,

Rai³

et al. 2023

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Disaster recovery is multidimensional and requires theoretical and methodological approaches from the interdisciplinary social sciences to illustrate short-and long-term recovery dynamics that can guide more informed and equitable policy and interventions. The 2015 Nepal earthquakes have had catastrophic impacts on historically marginalized ethnic groups and Indigenous households in rural locations, arising in the immediate aftermath and unfolding for years afterward. Analyzing factors that shape household recovery patterns can help identify vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities in addition to signaling potential future changes. We pursue this goal using survey data from 400 randomly selected households in 4 communities over 2 10-week intervals at 9 months and 1.5 years after the earthquakes. Building on previous research that used non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination to identify patterns among multiple indicators of recovery (Spoon et al. 2020a), we investigate associations among these patterns of recovery, hazard exposure, and four domains of household adaptive capacity: institutional participation, livelihood diversity, connectivity, and social memory. Our results suggest: (1) social inequality, high hazard exposure, and disrupted place-based livelihoods (especially for herders, farmers, and forest harvesters on the geographic margins) had strong associations with negative recovery outcomes and displacement; (2) inaccessibility and marginality appeared to stimulate ingenuity despite challenging circumstances through mutual aid and local knowledge; (3) recoveries were non-linear, differing for households displaced from their primary home and agropastoral practice and those displaced to camps; and (4) some households experienced rapid changes while others stagnated. We contribute a temporal dataset with a random sample collected following a disaster that uses a theoretically informed quantitative methodology to explore linear and non-linear relationships among multidimensional recovery, adaptive capacity and change and provide an example of how vulnerabilities interact with adaptive capacity.

show abstract

A Review of Glacial Lake Expansion and Associated Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Himalayan Region

Cited by 66 publications

References 85 publications

Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains

Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains

Spatiotemporal dynamics of glacial lakes (1990–2018) in the Kashmir Himalayas, India using Remote Sensing and GIS

Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About